Holidays: Easter

Holidays in Ukraine

Every man needs rest after hard work or studying on weekdays which is why we are eagerly looking forward to weekends and holidays to enjoy ourselves.

As you know, the word "holidays" comes from the words "holy day." The point is that all the holidays were first religious festivals, but nowadays many of them have nothing to do with religion. Each country has holidays honouring important events in its history. Many historical events are of great importance for all peo­ples and countries throughout the world.

As we live in Ukraine, we have our own customs and traditions, holidays and festivals.

Every year starts on New Year’s Eve night when the old year with all its troubles leaves us forever and new year with the most cherished hopes and expectations knocks at our door. The New Year Holiday is widely observed in Ukraine. This is everybody’s favourite holiday. The children decorate the New Year tree with bright ornaments, diverse toys and coloured lights. We love to get presents and always impatiently wait for New Year’s Eve to come. The most common type of celebration is the New Year party, either a family party or one arranged by a group of young people. This usually begins at 9 o'clock and goes on till the early hours of the morning. It’s the time when we see the Old Year off and the New Year in. There are a lot of drinking and eating of the festive table. When the clock strikes 12, everybody drinks champagne and says to each other: "Happy New Year!"

Another great holiday, which comes after New Year, is Christmas Day. Orthodox Christmas is observed on the 7th of January. You know, this holiday is of religious origin. Before Ukrainian Independence was proclaimed it hadn’t been an official holiday. In spite of this it was celebrated in lots of families. Since 1992 we celebrate it openly.

Actually it starts in the evening of the 6-th of January with the Christmas supper. There is a custom to make 12 dishes for this feast meal: the traditional kutya, vareniky, holubtsy with buckwheat, salted fish and others. Most of the dishes are national and special because they symbolize plentiful autumn harvest from the fields, kitchen-gardens and orchards. Everything in the household is being prepared for the meeting of Christ’s birth. All the members of the family should be at home; it is forbidden to quarrel during this day. No one at the table can eat till the first star appears in the sky. It symbolizes the beginning of Christmas holidays which last for 3 days. A prayer is obligatory before Christmas Supper.

Christmas is connected with ancient Ukrainian customs, such as fortune telling, singing carols, going to the church service. This day is the beginning of Christmas season which lasts almost the whole month and is known by singing of praise songs and special performances about Christ’s birth that are called “Vertep”. People go in groups singing “kolyadka”, special Christmas carols. They may come to any house and the hostess is supposed to invite them to the table or give them some money. But in Ukraine people do not exchange presents on this holiday as it is in the case of Great Britain and many other countries.

The 14-th of February is St. Valentine’s Day, the day of lovers, when we give cards and presents to our sweethearts.

The 15-th of February is the day when winter meets spring. The weather on this day indicates if the spring and summer are going to be warm and sunny, or not.

On the 8th of March we celebrate the Women's Day. This day was introduced in 1910 by the 2-nd International Conference of women-socialists. But nowadays it has lost its political meaning. This date has become just a nice spring feast when we congratulate our women on a wonderful holiday, thank our mothers and sisters, wives and daughters, girl-friends and sweethearts for everything they do for us, say our best wishes, send holiday cards, give presents and flowers.

Another great national holiday is Easter, the holiday of celebrating Christ's rising from the dead. It is a time of giving and receiving presents. In Ukraine we have special attributes of Easter: Easter eggs called “krashenka” or “pysanka”, Easter cakes or “paska” that are baked according to the special recipe.  The Easter egg is the most popular emblem of the religious holiday

April Fool's day named from the custom of playing practical jokes or sen­ding on fool's errands is on April the 1st. People enjoy joking and laughing on this holiday.

The 9th of May is a Victory Day. It is a sacred holiday for every citizen of our country as on this day we mark the anniversary of our victory over fascist invaders and commemorate the soldiers who liberated our Motherland and perished in severe battles with Nazi Germany. People lay flowers to the war memorials, to the tombs of Unknown soldiers – heroes of the war. War veterans are greeted and there is a salute and fireworks in the evening.

On August the 24-th Ukrainian Independence was proclaimed. Our Motherland became a sovereign state and the new era in our country’s history began. Which is why Ukrainian people celebrate this day as the great national holiday. There are a lot of concerts and dances in the streets of the cities.

( + September the 1-st – the Day of Knowledge; the first Sunday of October, the Teachers’ Day; December the 6-th, the Ukrainian Army Day ).

December the 24-th is the Catholic Christmas widely celebrated all over the world. And then the New Year’s Eve comes and everything starts again.

         

Fill in: includes, attend, dedicated, designs, surprises, Believers, festival, opportunity, According to, customs, Willow, sunrise, blessed

Each country has its own ………, traditions, holidays, important days in its history. Talking of holidays in Ukraine we should say about Easter which is one of the most important Christian ……… of the year.

Easter Day comes according to the lunar calendar. This day is much more than ordinary holiday. It’s the day of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection. People celebrate this Holiday because He died on the cross for our salvation. They go to churches, gather at homes to pray and thank Jesus.

Preparation for Easter starts seven weeks ahead of time with the Lent. ………….. don’t eat meat and animal products.                   Palm Sunday, the week before Easter, is known in Ukraine as …….. Sunday. People bring home willow branches which have been blessed in church.

 The week is ………….. to preparing for Easter. The Thursday before Easter is called Clean Thursday. …………… … Ukrainian tradition one should bathe before …….. on this day. The house must be clean too.          Good Friday is the day that the women of the family bake “paska”, Ukrainian Easter bread.             Easter egg is an important part in Easter celebration. It is the most popular emblem of the holiday. It  symbolized the birth of new life and the coming of spring.

So on Saturday children dye Easter eggs to add to the Easter basket, which will be ……… in church. It also ………. salt, paska, sausage and ham. In the evening people go to church for attending the all-night service. Even those who never usually go to church ………. such services. 

 Easter egg is called pysanka. Pysanka shells have been found in archaeological sites from more than 3000 years ago, and many of those ………. are still being used on pysanka today. Nowadays you can also find chocolate eggs with ………. in them.   There are some other emblems of Easter which came to us from other countries. They are fluffy little chicks, the Easter Bunny and spring flowers.

Ukrainian people enjoy Easter because it is a good break in everyday work, an ………. to see their friends and relatives and just to have a good time. At such moments everybody relaxes and tries to forget

Questions:

1.    What is one of the most important holiday of the year?

2.    What associations do you have with Easter?

3.    What is Lent?

4.    When does preparation for Easter start?

5.    Can you describe what is going on in your house before Easter Sunday?

6.    What is pysanka?

7.    Do you enjoy painting eggs?

8.    What are your favourite colours and desines?

9.    When do children dye eggs?

10.  What do people put into the Easter basket?